Lead the People

Susan Hobson is a High-Performance Leadership Coach, published author, Founder/CEO of Elite High Performance Inc., and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council. Susan’s science-based Elite High-Performance Coaching process draws on her first hand experience competing at some of the most competitive environments on the planet – Princeton & Harvard Universities and The National Women’s Hockey League. Rob Kalwarowsky specializes in helping leaders become high-impact individuals who turn their teams into happy, high-performing units that achieve their goals. He believes that traditional leadership coaching methods are not always enough to bring about the change that today's dynamic work environment demands. That's why Rob has taken a unique approach, blending together neuroscience, mindset coaching, high-performance leadership strategies with cutting-edge technology and data to provide a clear path to building a high-performing team. Susan and Rob’s podcast, the Leadership Launchpad Project, explores groundbreaking leadership strategies with top experts worldwide in the fields of leadership, business, management, psychology, mindset and sports. Top 3 Takeaways Get in there. The real work of leadership is the inner work. Make the time to get to know yourself in order to step into your full potential. Lead at every level. Executives chart the course and individuals do real work while managers in the middle connect the dots. Each layer requires its own leadership capabilities. Everybody hurts. Hurt people hurt people. We have to commit ourselves to healing our wounds and emerging stronger so we can better serve our mission and those around us. From the Source “Once we can let all this stuff go and work with ourselves in our inner experience then we can truly step into who we are and be authentic 2.0 leaders.” “That actually gets the best performance out of not only ourselves but also the business, and the people around them. And those people are happier, healthier, more productive, and the business thrives because of this.” “‘What behaviors do we need to take to make psych safety improve within our team?’ These things are super important because it's a nice concept and we all love to read books, but at the end of the day, we gotta walk the walk as leaders.” “The folks at the top talk strategy and goals and values and vision, and the folks at the bottom do the work, but the middle managers are the ones who actually have to create actionable strategies and implementation plans.” “The leaders who have that 2.0 heart centric, human centric, EQ driven approach to leading their teams are gonna find that managing change is a lot less disruptive to their nervous systems.” “The parts of us that we avoid are the portals to our next level … to our potential.” “It's never a selfish thing to examine your experience and to know thyself. Socrates said that was the whole purpose of life because when you know thyself … happy people … we lift other people up and that's the key that we should be looking at here in leadership. What is the damn point of having somebody leading the way if they're not lifting everybody else up that's following them?” “People are literally dying because the leaders are driving them. We learn as children that ‘hey, if you work hard, if you deliver, if you get an A from your teacher, if you get a pat on the back from your coach cuz you scored a goal … you are something’. That's all bullshit.”​​ “Who's benefiting? The folks that are at the top. Who's dying? Everybody else. And some of the folks who get to the top, they're doing it because they're truly hurt the most, and that's why they behave in the ways they do.” Connect with Susan and Rob LinkedIn (Susan): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jumpstartliving/ LinkedIn (Rob): https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-kalwarowsky/ Website: http://www.elitehighperformance.com/ The Leadership Launchpad Project (podcast): Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-leadership-launchpad-project/id1530978841 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0jmVzYZy8sDDwUgOeqJPSg Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/d12a5b8b-a6b9-4705-9dc4-0f8cf8bafffc/the-leadership-launchpad-project Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-leadership-launchpad-project Google - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8zNDkwNDdkMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC561W4wZZE_5GK00C0FCSsA Links to Matt’s Appearances on Leadership Launchpad Project “Inhuman Leadership Destroys Too Much Value with Matt Poepsel”: https://podcasts.apple.com/tt/podcast/inhuman-leadership-destroys-too-much-value-with-matt/id1530978841?i=1000609229916 “Your Last Competitive Advantage with Matt Poepsel”: https://podcasts.apple.com/tt/podcast/your-last-competitive-advantage-with-matt-poepsel/id1530978841?i=1000528567469

Dr. Marisol Capellan is an internationally recognized and award-winning educator, TEDx speaker, executive coach, and corporate trainer. She is the Founder of The Capellan Institute, a leadership, coaching, and corporate training company specializing in workplace culture, diversity, equity & inclusion, and soft skills development. Dr. Capellan is a former lecturer at the University of Miami, Miami Herbert Business School lecturer where she taught management and organizational behavior classes and served as the associate director of their Masters in Leadership program. She holds a doctoral degree in Higher Education Leadership and a Masters of Management with Specialization in Leadership from the University of Miami. Her dissertation focus was on the trajectory of women to leadership positions. As an Afro-Latina, mother, and immigrant, she has faced and witnessed many of the institutional and systemic barriers and biases that Black women face in their career trajectory to leadership roles, which sparked her passion for women’s empowerment and the need to increase the representation of women in positions of power. As a result, she published her book; Leadership is a Responsibility, about her career journey experience as a Black Hispanic woman in Academia, the stories of Black women in the workplace, and the need for responsible leaders to create a more equitable society where minorities can belong and thrive. In addition, her personal story of resilience has been featured on CNN and Telemundo as an unstoppable woman, where she discussed how her mindset helped her life and career trajectory as an immigrant in the United States. Top 3 Takeaways Business is personal. Each team member is having their own experience at work. Resist the urge to think collective members of any subgroup are having an identical experience. Take action. Active sympathy requires leaders not only to listen but to take action. Asking others to ignore unfair treatment or asking them to do your job is not leadership. Be brave. Recognize that we have longstanding, systemic issues to overcome. Expect subtle and not-so-subtle pushback when you instill fair leadership practices. From the Source “I always wanted to turn my dissertation into a book where I can speak to women and tell them about what happens in the workplace, how can they prepare, what are the pitfalls, and at the same time encourage leaders to know about the experiences of women in the workplace.” “It happens so often. Sometimes leaders are so disconnected from the organizations and they just expect the managers to do the right thing, and sometimes you don't know what they're doing.” “There is this texturism that happens within our group, and there is also colorism where people that are lighter skin get better treatment or are seen as more valuable than people that have darker skin, and that goes all the way back to colonization.“ “Sometimes leaders, when they have a diverse teams, they usually validate the experience of the majority within that team.” “Usually what happens is, at least the women that I interview from my book, they will say, ‘well, all of a sudden I'm treated differently because I'm the problem.’ ‘How come you cannot get along with everybody else?’ ‘How come you are the only one having that experience?’” “Leaders need to have the openness to others, people's experiences and perspectives because everybody is different, and that will make you a better leader. If you know that somebody else is having a different experience in your team, you'll be able to rectify that, manage that behavior, see what's going on, maybe implement new team norms or team guidelines.” Connect with Marisol LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisolcapellan/ Website: https://marisolcapellan.com/ Leadership is a Responsibility: How to Become an Inclusive Leader in the Modern Workplace by Understanding the Lived Experiences of Black Women and Afro-Latinas at Work (book): https://amzn.to/3oW0hJM  

Jennifer Dulski is CEO and founder of Rising Team, a SaaS company that equips managers with the tools and training to build engaged, connected and successful teams. She has a wide range of executive experience in leadership roles at technology companies including, Facebook, Google, and Yahoo!, and Dulski was also president and COO of the social enterprise company Change.org. Dulski writes about leadership and the future of work for LinkedIn Influencers and serves as a lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Her first book, Purposeful, about how each of us can be movement starters, was published by Penguin Portfolio in 2018 and is a Wall Street Journal Bestseller. Top 3 Takeaways Give people what they need. Employees are looking for the three Ps—Purpose, People, and Path. Team leaders need to understand how to help them connect these dots. Teams need tools. Managers are already overwhelmed. Expecting them to be comfortable kicking off people-centric conversations is just one more thing. Tools like Rising Team can help. Think beyond the tech. Generative AI and ChatGPT are performing seemingly human tasks but they won’t ever perform the most deeply human aspects of a team leader’s work. From the Source “What I wanted to do was create tools that would help leaders actively practice and bring back the skills that they're learning with their teams.“ "When you look at the data, people really care about what we call the relational elements. Of course people care about their salary and benefits and so forth, but they want to feel valued by their company and their manager. They want a deep sense of care and trust with the people they work with, and, all of that lands on managers to deliver and it's hard. It's hard to deliver those things, especially without any help.“ “People are not willing to just sit in jobs that they hate at companies that don't treat them well.” “The C-suite tends to overestimate employee satisfaction around their wellbeing by 65%. They think, well, we're happy…they must be happy too. And it's just not true.“ “When you ask remote workers, a lot of them feel more connected to their team than they did before [the pandemic] at places where they are being intentional about it.” “Recognition and appreciation are incredibly critically important. Consistency and frequency is important, and also individual needs really matter.” “After having done those motivator charts with thousands of people over decades of time, I can tell you that the three things that are most common are purpose—does what I work on matter to me, people—do I like and respect the other people I work with, and path—do I have a growth path in front of me here?“ “We just don't give managers the tools to deliver those things. It's not enough to tell them to do it.“ “It is true that ChatGPT will be able to replace all sorts of writing tasks and coding tasks and so forth. The one thing it will never be able to replace is ‘How do we get people to understand each other and care about each other and work well together?’” Connect with Jennifer Website: http://www.risingteam.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdulski/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dulskijen Twitter: https://twitter.com/jdulski Links Purposeful: Are You a Manager or a Movement Starter (book): http://www.purposefulbook.com  

Paul Burton is the Founder of C-Coach, a science-backed coaching technology platform. As a leader who turns problems into solutions, Paul uses that passion to make a positive impact on people. Merging empathy and compassion with emotional intelligence, tenacity, and the willingness to take risks, he envisions a future of limitless possibilities. His long-term goals include creating ongoing awareness about human-powered change, building partnerships with like-minded businesses, and initiating new government practices that support education for people in all walks and stages of life. Top 3 Takeaways Know the enemy. People begin a shiny new job full of hope and energy. If either wanes, it’s most likely due to the behaviors of those around them. Know your numbers. Coaching and leadership produce significant human benefits, but these practices also boost the bottom line. Use the commercial impact of coaching to fuel its investment. Know the drill. We regularly promote technical experts into management and leadership roles without thinking about the internal change and challenges that arise. Give coaching and support before, during, and after a promotion to ensure holistic success. From the Source “All of your business problems relate to people whether it be the design, whether it be the strategy, whether it be like the delivery, whether it be attitude—whatever it may be—it all comes back to people.” “The approach to growing people through their career is all too often siloed.” “The thing and the beauty with coaching and the fundamental thing for me is about getting to know what you don't know. How else do you get to know what you don't know?” “The world has changed significantly because of technology. I personally think we almost got to a stage now where we ask leaders to do the impossible.” “The very specific things I think managers are struggling with is having the confidence to be vulnerable, the confidence to be human, the confidence to say that I haven't got all of the answers and I don't need to have all the answers." Connect with Paul Website: https://www.c-coach.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulburton3

Tom Stewart has over 30 years experience in the U.S. Army. He has served in various leadership capacities including Battalion Commander while deployed in Afghanistan. Tom also served in multiple executive level staff positions including Assistant Chief of Staff, Director of Logistics, Director of Operations, and Director of the Joint Staff. He has a strong background in strategic planning and synchronizing large organizations toward a common goal. Top 3 Takeaways Get Over Yourself. When done properly, leadership is a selfless practice. Focus on the mission, the culture you want to create, and the welfare of those around you. Round It Out. Leadership is both an art and a science. That means we need to practice and study it at the highest levels in order to realize our full potential. Make the Investment. Pursuing an advanced degree, executive education, or another program of intensive study boosts your learning and achievement and amplifies your impact. From the Source “When I teach leadership, it's about leading in the most selfless manner possible, because it’s not about you, it's about the people that have to live with the policies you create, the environment that you create. So therefore, leaders should, in fact, look for professional development, but they really need to do it for the right reasons.” “Find what's right for you in your career and your interests and your passion, and go after it. Don't procrastinate. Don't be a wallflower standing there watching everybody else advance their education. You need to get off your own rear end and find that intrinsic motivation, and it should hopefully be for the right reasons, and that's so that you can lead better—for the people that have to follow your leadership.” “The hesitant leader is the one that understands the weight that they carry on their shoulders with that level of responsibility where other people are depending on you. The eager leader Is the one that may not be as selfless, who may in fact want career advancement because it's where it's gonna get me my salary, my title, my parking spot out front. So the eager leader may not fully appreciate the weight of a thousand burning suns that'll be on your shoulders when you have other people that are relying on you for their welfare and their happiness and their job security and the culture in which you create where they have to work every day.” “Nichols combines leadership theory which is the academics with practice which is the art to make for the real world educational experience we teach based on grounded research from our faculty.” Connect with Tom Website: http://www.nichols.edu Email: thomas.stewart@nichols.edu LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-stewart-35957410/ Links Master of Science in Organizational Leadership at Nichols College: https://www.nichols.edu/degrees/master-of-science-in-organizational-leadership/  

Katja Schipperheijn is an internationally recognized learning strategist and founder of Habit of Improvement, a consultancy that focuses on learning strategies that foster growth and well-being in a human-machine symbiosis. Besides her work in corporate settings, she is founder of the sCooledu foundation with which she reached over 15,000 children participating in her workshops on digital citizenship. Based in Antwerp, Belgium and Dubai, UAE, she is also an international keynote speaker and guest lecturer. Top 3 Takeaways Cultivate learning. Think of a learnscape as a garden. Whether you’re constructing the learning ecosystem or you’re contributing to it, embrace organic growth and sustainability of your learning assets. Go there. Be an active participant—or at least a dabbler—on the platforms that your employees turn to for learning. Don’t shy away from newer spaces like TikTok and Roblox that are heating up. Let them in. If your organization is depending on external and contract providers to do material work, don’t prevent them from accessing your knowledge systems and capturing their learnings and insights. From the Source “Sometimes things don't happen like you want it to be but that's not always the bad thing about it, because we have to learn and unlearn and try again. That's what I say: this is a habit that you create to improve yourself, to improve your organization, the society, the people that you work with. So it all comes to—habit to improve.” “Now more than ever with the accelerating speed of innovation—the world that is—changing. We had a pandemic, we have a war. Things are going so fast, like waves coming over this garden, we have to adapt all the time. And I think learning as human beings to understand all the impact of this is the only way that we can survive and thrive as people and as an organization.” “When I'm doing presentations or keynotes for L&D people, HR people, or leaders, I always ask them: when was the last time you went on TikTok? Fortnite? Roblox? And I know the answer about the last time. They never went on it. But that's the future. Those are learning ecosystems.” Connect with Katja Website: https://habitofimprovement.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/KatjaHoILinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katjaschipperheijn/ Links Katja's book Learning Ecosystems: Creating Innovative, Lean and Tech-driven Learning Strategies: https://amzn.to/3o0S6ve Katja's article on hope: https://habitofimprovement.com/2022/11/24/hope-as-the-leadership-competence-for-a-growth-culture/

Dr. Richard Shuster is a clinical psychologist, TEDx speaker, and CEO of Your Success Insights, which helps individuals, corporations, and athletes achieve balance and peak performance. He is also the host of The Daily Helping with Dr. Richard Shuster: Food for the Brain, Knowledge from the experts, Tools to Win at Life which is regularly downloaded in over 150 countries. Dr. Shuster’s clinical expertise and podcast have been featured in such publications as The Huffington Post, NBCNews.com, Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan, and others. He is also the president of Every Kid Rocks, Inc., a 501c3 which helps schools provide therapy services to children. Top 3 Takeaways Awareness comes in many flavors. Personal discovery can come from intentional reflection, a growing sense of discontent or disengagement, or a life-changing event. However it happens, pay attention! Show up. When in doubt, take action. By being active and doing something—anything—you increase the likelihood of creating connections and new opportunities to engage and create value. Think like a child. Never lose your sense of wonder and amazement. Try to always look at the world with fresh eyes, and whenever you have the opportunity, ask questions to increase your understanding and broaden your perspective. From the Source “Being in a car accident really started to meet down this transitional path towards really taking a look at what was important, what my values were, what mattered and, and moving toward a career path that fulfilled me in my soul as well as in my pocket book.“ “When you let yourself be open to experiences and open to possibilities, things happen.” “There was no agenda around this. I wasn't trying to sell stuff. It was just that I was going to help. I was going to help some people, and that was really the first kind of spark for me.” “No matter how many pandemics there are, no matter how many political scandals, no matter how many setbacks, how many unexpected illnesses or whatever else, life throws at you. If you are in alignment with your values and you love what you're doing, you're going to weather that storm.“ “What makes kids really unique is that they have an exuberance and a sense of fascination with all kinds of things.” Connect with Richard Website: https://drrichardshuster.com Podcast: https://drrichardshuster.com/business-portfolio/the-daily-helping-podcast/ Every Kid Rocks nonprofit: http://everykidrocks.org/ References “Food Fight” trivia game content: https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/kids-favorite-least-favorite-packed-school-lunches-gallery

Trey is CEO of Taylor Insurance Services & Managing Director of Trinity | Blue. His experience derives from fields as diverse as technology, venture capital, & commercial real estate. As a keynote speaker, he has addressed attendees at the Human Capital Institute, & the Ascend Conference. He holds a Bachelors degree in History from Emory University, & a Juris Doctor degree in Tax & Corporate Transactions from Tulane. He recently published his first book: A CEO Only Does 3 Things. Top 3 Takeaways Leaders Live in 3D—Trey has a view that leaders are comprised of intellectual, emotional, and identity dimensions. The three are highly connected, and it’s key to understand these both in ourselves and in our people. The essentials are key—Three things matter most for a CEO: culture, people, and the numbers. Ensure that these are solid before you move on to other matters. Learn to delegate—Your ability to scale your business and to experience real joy in your life relies on your ability to delegate effectively. Make it a point to get good at giving your work and accountability to your team. From the Source “You can't manage someone until you manage yourself, and you can't manage yourself until you understand yourself.“ “You have to understand: how do you intellectually respond to challenges, how do you emotionally respond to challenges, and where do those two things come from? They come from an identity that you hold.“ “Every organization has a culture whether you intend to have one or not.“ “If we fix the culture and we get the right people in the door then the numbers are proof that the first two things are in alignment.“ “The burnout that [clients] are feeling is a direct result of the unwillingness to let go of both ends of the stick.” “Your team is not an extension of yourself. Your team is an extension of the mission of the company.” “If you want to grow the business, grow your people, and feel a lot more joy come into your life, delegation is the first thing.“ “If you can't delegate to someone, you either have the wrong heart or the wrong team. And one of those has to change.“ Connect with Trey Book Website: http://www.aceoonlydoesthreethings.com Book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/CEO-Only-Does-Three-Things/dp/B09HMYRD78/ Newsletter: http://www.plantyourflag.live Trinity Blue Consulting: https://trinity-blue.com/ Personal Website: http://www.trey-taylor.com Links “(Wall) Street Smarts”: https://www.top-business-degrees.net/30-greatest-living-geniuses-in-business/

Kamini Wood is the founder and CEO of Live Joy Your Way and the AuthenticMe® RiseUp program. An international best-selling author Kamini is driven to support both high performing teens and adults heal the relationship with themselves  and to stop outsourcing their self-worth. Kamini says she messes with the way people think in order to help them gain clarity and deep self-acceptance to move forward professionally and personally. Top 3 Takeaways Replenish for the win—High achievers are particularly susceptible to spreading themselves thin in pursuit of positive results. Remember to rest and recuperate when needed. Accentuate the positive—Resist the urge to dwell on what you could’ve done better. Take the opportunity to appreciate what you’re doing right and determine how you can take that to the next level. Develop complementary strengths—The act of leadership and developing others has the win-win effect of boosting your own capabilities. Help one another get better for twice the success. From the Source “When we're trying to do it all, we end up depleting ourselves in such a fashion that we, we actually are, are working from an empty cup.“ “At some point we've got to replenish, otherwise we don't have anything else to put into the thing that we're working towards.” “I really try to talk to my clients about recognizing that self compassion is an act of self-fullness not self-ishness.” “We don't have to go it alone. We don't have to be isolated. We can ask for other people's opinions or maybe they've had a similar experience that we can build off of.” “I truly believe that we learn when we are teaching others. Sometimes, when we are teaching others or leading others, we are actually stepping into those things for ourselves.” “I think the pandemic has taught us this concept of really learning how to give ourselves grace as the environment changes, that some things are outside of our control, and it’s focusing back on What is within my control? What do I have the ability to do? How do I choose to show up?” Connect with Kamini Website: http://www.kaminiwood.com   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsauthenticme/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itsauthenticme/

Eric Rogell is the host of the Warriors, Lovers, Kings, and Heroes podcast. He’s a sought after corporate speaker, bestselling author, and he shows executives and entrepreneurs highly effective strategies to break through barriers, forge mental toughness, and inspire and engage their teams to be more capable, more confident, more connected. Eric has interviewed hundreds of people including celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and military vets. He gets them to dive deep into their stories and all the memories, lessons, failures and triumphs that made them the success they are today. These are valuable insights that collectively paint a picture of what great leaders are made of.  Top 3 Takeaways Find yourself in the story—You’re the protagonist, the hero, of your own story; recognize that your storyline likely follows the structure of Joseph Campbell’s classic Hero’s Journey. Strike a balance—Carl Jung believed that we have within us both Warrior and Lover tendencies. By embracing and integrating our hard and soft sides and skills, we can amplify our leadership ability.   Be genuine for the win—When you’re able to tap into your full essence, you’re able to be completely authentic in your leadership and your results and your relationships will improve in kind. From the Source “One of the things I loved was stories of fantasy and comic books and science fiction and myths.“ “When do I need to be more Warrior and then support with that Lover side? When do I need to come in as the Hero and just be selfless and those kinds of things.” “These traits that the warriors have, things like courage and boldness and being a Maverick and risk-taking and adventurer leadership, being a guardian and a steward, those kinds of things really are our Warrior.” “There are great things in this Lover side, this heart side that really takes whatever it is the Warrior has now driven towards—ambition and drive; those warrior traits and now makes it flourish and thrive—become come abundant.” “When you look at that Warrior side, it was just, ‘Hey, we've made a decision.’ I didn't have to come in guns, blazing swords, drawn, mad.” Connect with Eric Website: http://www.ericrogell.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericrogell